1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel supply rail for a fuel injector in a cylinder head of an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of Related Art
Internal combustion engines with direct injection spark ignition require fuel to be injected into the engine combustion chambers by respective fuel injectors mounted on the water cooled engine cylinder head. Each fuel injector is provided with an injector seat that engages a seat on the cylinder head to provide a heat transfer path to the cylinder head in order to provide cooling of the fuel injector in use on the engine. Since thermal expansion rates are different between a typical aluminum alloy cylinder head and a stainless steel fuel injector housing, a cantilever spring clip separate from the fuel injector has been used in the past to retain and load or bias each fuel injector relative to the cylinder head seat prior to assembly of the fuel rail that supplies fuel to the fuel injectors. Use and assembly of such separate cantilever spring clips in this manner is disadvantageous in that the numerous separate cantilever clips complicate assembly of the fuel injectors as well as servicing of the fuel injection system on the vehicle and provides a fuel injector load tolerance range relative to the cylinder head that can be excessive or deficient as a result of part dimensional tolerance range and thermal expansion effects.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved fuel injector system having a fuel supply rail assembly with an integrated fuel injector load spring that overcomes the above discussed disadvantages.